MIDDLE EAST: Israel's Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon is set to hold his first meeting next week with the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, Mr Ahmed Korei, with both men, unusually, intimating that they perceive a genuine opportunity to find a path out of more than three years of relentless conflict.
Mr Korei said on Thursday that he believed a peace deal might be attainable within six months, while Mr Sharon said he was contemplating various unspecified "unilateral actions" to ease conditions for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In a region where even a brief absence of violence is a source of encouragement, what's more, some 200,000 Palestinians gathered for prayers on the final Friday of Ramadan at Jerusalem's Temple Mount yesterday, and dispersed under close Israeli police supervision, without incident.
With Mr Korei anxious to solidify his position as prime minister, and Mr Sharon rocked by unusually heavy criticism of his policies this week by President Bush, and by falling popularity ratings, both men appear to have a strong interest in achieving progress.
Mr Korei is working hard to forge a ceasefire agreement with more than a dozen Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and was rewarded yesterday when all the groups agreed to attend intensive ceasefire talks, under Egyptian auspices, in early December.
Aides to Mr Sharon are indicating that Israel will cease military operations in the territories if such a ceasefire is announced, while reserving the right to kill or otherwise intercept "ticking bombs" - bombers en route to an attack.
And Mr Sharon's talk of "unilateral" steps is being privately presented by his aides as representing a readiness to pull troops out of West Bank cities, ease restrictions on Palestinian movement, dismantle illegal settlement outposts and reroute or suspend the building of parts of a security barrier, being erected as an obstacle to Palestinian suicide bombers, where it cuts deep into the West Bank.